Titanic distress messages pay off

Jan 1, 2003

A large volume of messages sent and received by the Titanicduring her short-lived maiden run were recently auctioned off at Christie's East in New York.

Four lots of material relating to the Titanic sold for an astounding $178,500. This price was far in excess of what the usually accurate auction house had estimated those items would realize. For instance, a bundle of 34 signals describing the distress calls, including the chilling "We have struck an iceberg," as well as messages describing the rescue operations that followed the disaster, sold for $123,500. The initial sales price estimate was between $2,200 and $2,800.

Also included was a lot of 18 messages warning of the ice conditions in the North Atlantic that was estimated to fetch $4,500 and ended up selling for $46,000.